LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 611 458 1 



Conservation Resource!) 

f ia-Croo® Tvno I 



451 
S54 
opv 1 




^FECIAL 

SOUVENIR 

PROGRAMME 

OF THE 

Prrarutattuu nf u Portrait lust 

OF 
AS 

KENTUCKY S GIFT 

TO 

ii^m0rtal Qlnutiu^ntal ^all 

AT THE 

QluienttPtli Ol^ntittrntal (Eottgreaa 

OF THE 

Nattnital ^ortrtg 

OF THE 

iaugtjt^rB of % Amrrtrau H^unluttnu 

April 17 to 22, 1911 
Washington, D. C. 



Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, Prcsideiit-General, 
N. S., 1). A. K. 



OFFICERS, 1910-1911, 

OF THE 

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

IN THE 

STATE OF KENTUCKY. 



Mrs. Annie K. Johnson Bardstovvn 

Vice-Regent, 
Mrs. Jean Daveiss Warren Danville 

St'C7-elary, 
Mrs. May R. Thompson Lexington 

Treasitrer, 
Mrs. Annie C. Escott Shelby ville 

His/orian, 
Mrs. Louise Ryland Coodkr Cincinnati, O. 

Honorary State R cedent, 
Mrs. Julia Churchill Blackburn Louisville 



Note. —This programme is presented with the compliments of 
the Lexington Chapter, D, A. R. By this, the parent Chapter of 
the Kentucky Daughters, the movement for the Isaac Shelby bust 
was originated, and two of its members. Misses Lizzie A. Lyle and 
Julia P. H. Spurr, have been the committee in active charge of the 
work. 



\Tt^. ^."rru.'^ASUjicn^— 



s 

^ 



^^^^^^^^^^^H 


^^^^^m ' '"^ 'J^^^^l 


^^^^1 


H 




i ^^H 


I 


>l^m 




1 


tt 


"flJP^^^^^^^H 



BUST OF GOVERNOR ISAAC SHELBY. 

Bronze Replica of Marble Bust, by Piccirilii Brothers. Presented by 

the LexinKnon Chapter, D. A. R., to the State Historical 

Society of Kentucky, at Frankfort, Ky., 

June 22, 1910. 



THE ADDRESS at the unveiling and presentation 
to Memorial Continental Hall of the marble bust 
of Governor Isaac Shelby, will be made on Tues- 
day, April 18, 1911, on behalf of the D. A. R. of Ken- 
tucky, by Mrs. Mary Shelby Wilson, of Lexington, Ky. 
Mrs. Wilson is a member of the Lexington Chapter, and 
a great-grand-daughter of Governor Shelby. 




BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ISAAC SHELBY. 

Born December 11, 1750, in Frederick County, Maryland, near 
the North Mountain and in the vicinity of Hagerstown. Employed 
until twenty-one years of age in farming and herding cattle for his 
father, Captain Evan Shelby. In 1771, removed with other members 
of the Shelby family to the Holston Region in Southwest \'irginia. 
Shared the customary experiences and adventures of a pioneer and 
frontiersman. Served as Lieutenant in company of F^incastle troops, 
of which his father, Evan Shelby, was Captain, in Dunmore's War, 
fighting valiantly at Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. Of tWe 
affair at Point Pleasant, which has often been called "the first battle 
of the American Revolution," Lieutenant Shelby, in a letter to his 
uncle John Shelby, written a few days after the battle, has left us the 
best first-hand account. He remained as second in command of a 
garrison at the mouth of the Great Kanawha until July, 1775. For 
nearly a year following he explored, located and surveyed lands in 
Kentucky. In July, 1776, while in Kentucky, he was appointed Cap- 
tain of a Minute Company by the Committee of Safety in Virginia. 
In 1777 he was appointed by Governor Patrick Henry, of Virginia, a 
Commissary of Supplies for an extensive body ol militia guarding 
the frontier posts. In 1778 he was engaged in the commissary 
department, providing supjilies for the Continental Army and for an 
expedition, by way of Pittsburg, against the Northwestern Indians. 
He rendered similar service in 1779. In the spring of that year he 
was elected a member of the A'irginia Legislature from Wasliington 
County, and in the fall of the same year was commissioned a Major 
by Governor Thomas Jefferson, in the escort of guards to the Com- 
missioners for establishing the boundary line between Virginia and 
North Carolina. By the extension ol this line, his residence was 
found to be in North Carolina; and, shortly afterwards, he was 



appointed by Gov. Caswell a Colonel of the new County of Sullivan. 
On the 30th of July, 17S0, he captured a formidable Tory stronghold 
on the Pacolet River. He was largely responsible for the victory in 
the battle of Musgrove's Mill, August 18, 1780; was one of those in 
chief command in the battle of King's Mountain, October 7, 1780, 
and contributed most largely to the success there achieved. A few 
months later, in command of a troop, he joined General Francis 
Marion and served under him until near the end of the war. 

In 1781 he was elected a member of the North Carolina Legisla- 
ture; in 1783, moved to Kentucky; member of three of the Kentucky 
conventions held in 1787, 1788 and 1789, preparatory to applying for 
stateliood; in January, 1791, appointed with General Charles Scott, 
Benjamin Logan and two others, a member of the local Board of 
War, created by Congress for the District of Kentucky, with full dis- 
cretionary power to provide for the defense of the frontier settle- 
ments and the prosecution of the war with the Indians. High Sheriff 
of Lincoln County, Ky., until his election as Governor in May, 1792; 
member of convention which framed first Constitution of Kentucky 
in April, 1792. One of the first Trustees of Transylvania Seminary 
(afterwards Transylvania University), appointed in 1783; also a mem- 
ber and chairman of tlie first Board of Trustees of Centre College, 
founded in 1819. First Governor of Kentucky, 4th of June, 1792- 
1796; again elected Governor, 1812-1816; and led 4,000 Kentucky 
volunteers to join General Harrison in the Northwest for the invasion 
of Canada, where the British were defeated at the Battle of the 
Thames, 5th of October, 1813. For his heroic services in this cam- 
paign and battle he was awarded a gold medal by Congress on the 
4th of April, 1818. In 1817, selected by President Monroe as Secre- 
tary of War, but declined office on score of age. Was one of 
the Presidential Electors for Kentucky in 1797, in 1801, and in 
1805. In 1818, was commissioned with General Andrew Jackson to 
hold treaty with Chickasaw tribe of Indians for purchase of lands 
west of Tennessee River, which service he performed with entire 
satisfaction to all parties concerned. Died 18th of July, 1826, at his 
historic home, "Traveller's Rest," Lincoln County, Ky., in 1783. 
Counties in nine States have been named Shelby in his honor. Mar- 
ried at Boonesboro, Ky., in 1783, Susannah Hart, daughter of Capt. 
Nathaniel Hart, one of the proprietors of the Transylvania Company. 








H 




lir^iajSJjS. ^Sk- 


mRM^^^^^^^^^^^^^i 


- * 


h^ 


"^ll^^l 


I.. ■ 


^ 








■ 



O^'^^J:^:^^ 




Born in Maryland, December 11, 175U. Died in Kentucky, July 18, 

1826. A cunspicuous actor in three wars, and twice 

Governor of Kentucky. 



MRS. WILSON'S ADDRESS. 



Madame PresidentGeneral, Daughters of the 

Avierican Revolution, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

By the gracious favor of my good friends, the Daughters of Ken- 
tucky, it has happily fallen to my lot to present to our National 
Society, as an appropriate gift for this most exquisite Memorial Hall, 
a handsome portrait-bust of Governor Isaac Shelby, justly celebrated 
in American history as a brave and magnanimous soldier, a sagacious 
statesman, and a patriot who counted no cost in his devoted service 
to the land which gave him birth. 

To the Daughters of Kentucky, for their generous act in choos- 
ing me as their representative on this interesting occasion, I am most 
sincerely grateful. For this new proof of the enduring affection and 
admiration cherished by Kentucky women for one whom, with par- 
donable pride, it is my privilege to claim as a revered Revolutionary 
ancestor, I beg leave to express my warmest gratitude. 

Within less than eighty miles of this beautiful edifice, in the 
vicinity of the modern Hagerstown, and in Lord Baltimore's Province 
of Maryland, on the eleventh of December, 1750, Isaac Shelby was 
born. Drawing his life-blood from the sturdiest of Welsh and Eng- 
lish ancestors ; early disciplined in the woodcraft of the frontier, with 
his mind stored and teeming from childhood with the thrilling tales of 
border warfare, in which his father, Captain Evan Shelby, had been 
long and arduously engaged, it is not surprising that, on reaching 
man's estate, Isaac Shelby should have displayed a natural aptitude 
for war and an exceptional capacity for leadership. Indeed, it has 
been truly said of him that he was a born soldier and a soldier born 
to command. 



The family having- moved from Maryland to Southwest Virginia, 
at the first call to arms in Lord Dunmore's War, he was thoiif^Mit 
worthy to receive a Lieutenant's commission in a company of the 
Fincastle troops, of which Evan Shelby, his father, was Captain. At 
the mouth of the Great Kanawlia, in the fierce, all-day, liand-to-hand 
battle of Point Pleasant, which occurred on October 10, 1774, both 
Lieutenant Shelby and ills more experienced father gained imperisli- 
abie renown. 

Six years sped by, and the crisis of the Revolution is reached. 
General Gates, at Camden, crushed by disaster, falters in despair, 
flushed with victory, Cornwallis and his relentless invaders grow 
ever more insolent and aggressive, and threaten death and extermi- 
nation to all who do not instantly submit to the royal authority. 

In such an emergency we find Isaac Shelby gloriously fulfilling 
the expectations which liis higli character and soldierly qualities had 
year by year increasingly inspired. Acting promptly and resolutely, 
he lost no time in planning, maturing and putting into effect the 
movement of the allied patriot forces by which Major Patrick Fergu- 
son and his redoubtable army were triumphantly overthrown on the 
rocky heights of King's Mountain. 

Ranked as one of the decisive battles, and, in the South at least, 
as the real turning-point of the Revolution, tlie officers in command 
of the American forces were thenceforth inevitably assured of a per-, 
manent place among the heroes of the great War for Independence. 
To Isaac Shelby belongs exclusive credit for the bold conception, 
and to him unstinted praise must be awarded for the determined 
energy and vigor with which he brought Colonels Sevier and Camp- 
bell and McDowell and Cleveland and their intrepid associates to 
join in the daring expedition. 

Omitting the mention of other useful and extraordinary services, 
rendered by Colonel Isaac Slielby during the Revolutionary War, it 
is enough to say that he came out of that war a marked man, univer- 
sally respected and honored. 

The Revolution over, at the age of thirty-three he took up his 
abode permanently amid the virgin forests of the Blue Grass region 
of Kentucky. Nine years later he assisted in framing the first Con- 

V 



stitution of this pioneer Commonwealth, and was elected, almost 
without opposition, as the first Governor of the new State. 

In 1812, when war with Great Britain was again declared, lie was^ 
promptly summoned by his fellow-citizens to serve as Governor of 
Kentucky once more. In this, our Second War of Independence, 
Governor Shelby, now a Major-General of Militia, and commander- 
in-chief, under General Harrison, of an army of four thousand Ken- 
tucky volunteers, demonstrated the vitality of his rugged manhood 
and the unfailing strength of his patriotism by winning, in the fore- 
front of battle, at the head of his courageous comrades-in-arms, fresh 
laurels both for himself and his beloved Kentucky in the notable 
Battle of the Thames. For his services in this battle, fought on the 
5th of October, 1813, on Canadian soil, and fast upon the heels of 
Perry's famous naval victory on Lake Erie, Governor Shelby, a few 
years later, received a handsome gold medal and the unanimous 
thanks of Congress. The grateful Commonwealth whose destinies 
were entrusted to his guidance during this trying period, promptly 
recorded its appreciation and its gratitude in resolutions which 
declare "the high estimation in which they hold the conduct of their 
venerable chief magistrate, Isaac Shelby, in leading the Kentucky 
militia into Upper Canada, to victory and to glory. The plans and 
execution of them were not the depictions of patriotism, with which 
others amuse the admiring multitude; they were splendid realities, 
which exact our gratitude and that of his country, and justly entitle 
him to the applause of posterity." 

When not serving his country as a soldier in the field or as a civil 
ofificer in legislative halls or in the executive chair, it was Governor 
Shelby's delight to occupy himself with the ordinary pursuits of peace 
and his chief inteiest lay in the simple joys of home and country 
life. His old Kentucky home, "Traveller's Rest," was, until the 
end of his long life, an unrivaled seat and centre of truly genuine 
and dignified hospitality. And the traditions of that earlier day, 
when every weary, way-worn traveller was welcome, have been 
handed down by successive owners of the estate, members all of 
them of the Shelby family, even to our own time. 



Thus in brief, Madame President-General and you, honored 
Daughters of the American Revolution, I have endeavored faintly to 
picture the career of one we are assembled to honor and concerning 
wliom we this day bear witness that he deserved well of his country. 
The events here narrated furnish some of the reasons wliy Governor 
Shelby should have been Kentucky's choice for a place of honor in 
this national shrine. Dying in his seventy-sixth year, he bequeathed, 
like the patriarchs of old, to his children and his fellow-countrymen 
to the remotest generation a heritage which shall outlast all the vicis- 
situdes of time. 

So now, in loving memory of his name and fame, and on liehalf 
of tlie many fair Daughters of Kentucky, who with one accord have 
sought thus signally to honor him as one of Kentucky's favorite sons, 
I commit to your safe-keeping and i)resent to you as Kentucky's gift, 
this life-like sculptured portrait of Governor Isaac Shelby. I beg 
you to receive and treasure it as a just and fitting memorial to this 
illustrious soldier, statesman and hero of the American I^evolution, 
of whom it has been truly said by a distinguished contemporary, 
adapting tlie words applied to his great compatriot, the immortal 
Washington, that he was "great in war, great in peace, and lives for- 
ever in the hearts of his countrymen." 



LIEUTENANT ISAAC SHELBY AT POINT PLEASANT, 
OCTOBER 10, 1774. 



"One of Christian's captains was a stout old Marylander, of 
Welsh blood, named Evan Slieiby; and Shelby's son Isaac, a stal- 
wart, stern-visaged young man, who afterwards played a very promi- 
nent part on the border, was a subaltern in his company, in which 
Robertson likewise served as a sergeant. Although without experi- 
ence of drill, it may be doubted if a braver or physically finer set of 
men were ever got together on this continent. * * * ^n ^i^g 
after-time leaders of the west were engaged in some way in Lord 
Dunmore's war. Their fates were various. * * * Shelby won 
laurels at King's Mountain, became the first governor of Kentucky, 
and when an old man revived the memories of his youth by again 
leading the western men in battle against the British and Indians." 

— Winning of the IVesl, Roosevelt. 



"All day the battle raged, at times like the howling of a tempest; 
and all day the victory wavered — now to this side, and now to that — ■ 
till the dead were piled in heaps, and more than one-fifth of both 
armies had fallen. But, still the voice of Cornstalk was heard above 
the din, bidding his warriors 'Be strong! Press forward!' Colonel 
Lewis had fallen early in the fight, leaving his regiment to the com- 
mand of Evan Shelby; and now, just as darkness is coming on, with 
the battle yet undecided, Isaac Shelby, who is left in charge of the 
Watauga company, sees that, by creeping along the bank of the 
Kanawha, he can, in the shelter of the underbrush, gain the rear of 
the enemy. Takin'gtwo other companies with him, he does this, and 
and then pours a sudden and destructive volley upon the savages. 
Taken thus between two fires, the Indians are panic-stricken and flee 
in all directions. In vain Cornstalk and Logan attempt to rally them. 
They scatter, like October leaves before the wind, to their far homes 

on the Scioto." 

—Rear Guard of the Revolution, Gilmore. 



COLONEL ISAAC SHELBY AT KING'S MOUNTAIN, 
OCTOBER 7, 1780. 



"Although Shelby was not in name the chief in this action, there 
is no reason to doubt that the conception of the campaign and the 
vigor of its execution were his alone. His also was the scheme of 
attack wliich led to the battle of Cowpens." 

— Ketitucky, A Pioneer Co?/n//on-<vea///i, Slialer. 



"The two centre columns, lieaded by Campbell and Shelby, 
climbing the mountain, began the attack. Shelby, a man of the 
hardiest make, stiff as iron, among the dauntless singled out ftjr 
dauntlessness, went right onward and upward like a man who had but 
one thing to do, and but one thought — to do it." 

— History of the United States, Bancroft. 



"Colonel Ferguson fell at last because lie preferred death to sur- 
render. But he fought against Sevier and Shelby, men as heroic as 
he, and actuated by far higher motives. With him it was love of 
glory and loyalty to his king; with them, love of freedom and fidelity 
to the rights of man; and so, in the long ages that are coming, 
when kings and kingcraft shall have perished from the earth, Fergu- 
son will be accounted a brave soldier, but Sevier and Shelby will be 
ranked among the lieroes of the race; and so will the unnamed nine 
fiundred who, on that bloody day, faint with hunger and weary with 
hard riding, marched so steadily upon those British bayonets." 

J?ear Guard of the RevolutioJi, Gilmore. 



GENERAL ISAAC SHELBY AT THE BATTLE OF THE 
THAMES, OCTOBER 5, 1813. 

On August 22, 1813, just at the moment when, in the language of 
Secretary Monroe, "disclaiming all metaphysical distinctions tending 
to enfeeble the government," Governor Slielby was about to lead 
his troops far beyond the limits of the state of which he was the offi- 
cial head, a handsome sword was presented to him by the State of 
North Carolina. This honor was conferred by the Old North State, as 
Henry Clay expressed it, "in testimony of the sense it entertained 
of Shelby's conduct at King's Mountain," in the War for Indepen- 
dence. The presentation at tin's particular juncture "afforded a pres- 
age of the new glory he was to acquire for himself and country in that 
eventful northwestern campaign." 

"In communicating to the President through you, sir, my opinion 
of the conduct of the officers who served under my command, I am 
at a loss how to mention that of Governor Shelby, being convinced 
that no eulogium of mine can reach his merit. The governor of an 
independent state, greatly my superior in years, in experience, and 
in military character, he placed himself under my command, and was 
not more remarkable for his zeal and activity than for the promptitude 
and cheerfulness with which he obeyed my orders." 

— Official Report: Gen. Harrison to 

Gen. Armstrong, Secretary of War. 

"This result is signally honorable to Major-General Harrison, by 
whose military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson and his 
mounted volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a decided blow to 
the ranks of the enemy; and to the spirit of the volunteer militia, 
equally brave and patriotic, who bore an interesting part in the scene; 
more especially to the chief magistrate uf Kentucky, at the head of 
them, whose heroism, signalized in the war which established the 
independence of his country, souglit at an advanced age a share in 
hardships and battles for maintaining its rights and its safety." 

— Fift/i Annual Message of President Madison. 

"That the thanks of Congress be, and tliey are hereby, presented 
to Major-General William Henry Harrison, and Isaac Shelby, late 
governor of Kentucky, and through them, to the officers and men 
under their command, for their gallantry and good conduct in defeat- 
ing the combined British and Indian forces under Major-General 
Proctor, on the Tliames, in Upper Canada, on the 5tli day of October, 
1813, capturing the British army, with their baggage, camp equipage, 
and artillery; and that the President of the LInited States be requested 
to cause two gold medals to be struck, emblematical of this triumph, 
and presented to General Harrison, and Isaac Shelby, late governor 
of Kentucky." 

—Act of Congress, Approved April 4, ISIS. 



GO\ERNOR MOREHEAD'S TRIBUTE 
TO GOVERNOR SHELBY. 



" 'Great men,' said Edmund Burke, 'are the guide-posts and 
landmarks in the State.' The Hfe of Isaac Shelby is a signal example 
of unblemished personal integrity and enlarged public usefulness, 
which may be safely imitated by all those who aspire to become 
benefactors of their country. Starting into active life without the 
aid of large fortune or a finished education, he pursued the grada- 
tions of military rank from the lieutenancy of a militia company to 
the command of a regiment; he rose from the inconspicuous but 
important station of a surveyor among the pioneers to the governor- 
ship of a great commonwealth, and was distinguished in all the posts 
to which he was called. His mind, like his body, was strong and 
vigorous; boldness, energy, decision were its leading characteris- 
tics. Capable of thinking for himself, he investigated every impor- 
tant subject that came within the range of his private or public 
duties, with candor and deliberation; and having formed his opin- 
ions, he followed them with unshaken firmness. He spoke and wrote 
as he thought, with great force and vigor, always expressing his 
opinions with manly frankness and a h^fty disdain of personal conse- 
quences. His manners were plain and simple, and commanded, 
without any affectation of dignity or superiority, the universal defer- 
ence of his associates. He was sincere, but not profuse, in his pro- 
fessions of attachment; faithful and steadfast to his friends when 
those attachments were once formed. Elevating himself in the dis- 
charge of his official duties abt)ve the influence of private considera- 
tions, he sought and rewarded merit for his country's sake. Such 
being his character as a public man, he maintained all the relations 
of life with equal credit and success. His death produced a sensa- 
tion, which told with great emphasis of the loss of a public bene- 
factor." 

-From A (hi less at Booiiesboroiis;Ji , h'y., 

May J5, IS-^O, by Goiwrnor James T. Moreliead. 




OF CONGRESS 
014 ol*- 



